State Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, has set aside the second of two proposals to overhaul Louisiana's popular college scholarship program known as TOPS.

The Senate Finance chair had suffered a significant defeat on his first bill to reign in the cost of the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) scholarship Monday (May 12). He decided against bringing up the second piece of legislation -- which would have affected more students and might have been a tougher sell -- Wednesday (May 14).

A merit-based scholarship, TOPS is given out to any student who earns a 2.5 grade point average and a 20 on the ACT. The award covers the cost of full tuition at a public college or university and is expected to serve 47,000 students next year.

Though popular, TOPS is also expensive for the state. The program is estimated to cost $387 million by the 2018-2019 school term, a price tag the Louisiana state government will not be able to afford. Donahue, as Senate Finance chairman, was trying to find a way to make the expense of the program more reasonable.

In his second bill, Donahue had proposed essentially capping the scholarship to its current level, and only letting the grants grow as much as the consumer price index increases each year. This would likely have meant that TOPS, in the future, would not have covered the entire cost of college tuition.

The measure would have saved the state $252.8 million over the next five years, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office. But Donahue may still have had a tough time convincing others it was a good idea.

His bill would have meant less of an award for every person receiving TOPS. The senator had a difficult enough time selling his first TOPS bill -- which went down on a 23-16 vote -- even though it only affected a fraction of the people receiving the scholarship. It's hard to imagine he would have gotten more support for a bill with an impact on a larger group of students.

Unlike the Senate, the Louisiana House of Representatives had to vote on TOPS. House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, filed legislation similar to Donahue's this year, but hasn't acted on the bill yet. Kleckley said he was waiting to see how Donahue's bills were received before moving forward with his proposal.

Still, it's significant that legislators like Donahue and Kleckley are willing to tackle TOPS. Both lawmakers occupy leadership positions in the statehouse, which means their proposals for changing the scholarship are taken more seriously.

If Donahue or Kleckley were willing to bring TOPS change forward next year, the proposals might make it farther in the legislative process, though some legislators would probably still be wary of sticking their necks out. Gov. Bobby Jindal had said he likes the current structure of the TOPS programs. It's possible he would veto any changes that arrived on his desk.